Privacy and cookies
What we store, why, who else can see it, and how to get rid of it.
The short version
We store what you do on this site so we can order it for you. We do not ask for your name. We do not sell personal data. You can delete everything at any time by asking.
What we collect
- A pseudonymous identifier in a first-party cookie, set only after you agree on the welcome screen. It is a random value; it is not derived from anything about you.
- Your interactions — which headlines were shown, opened, liked, disliked, saved, shared or hidden, and when.
- Your settings — theme, layout, sort order, muted sources and keywords.
- Your email address and a hashed password, if you create an account. Passwords are stored only as a salted scrypt hash and cannot be read back.
- Ordinary server logs, including IP address, used for security and abuse prevention.
Cookies we set
mp_consent— records that you accepted this policy. Without it, nothing else is set.mp_uid— the pseudonymous reading profile.mp_session— keeps you signed in. Set only when you sign in, and removed when you sign out.mp_csrf— a security token that prevents other sites from acting on your behalf.- A participation cookie set by the compute script, recording whether you have opted out of it. See Your device helps run the writer below.
None of these are advertising cookies. Advertising, where shown, is served by third parties who may set their own — see below.
Your device helps run the writer
The briefs on this site are written by a language model that runs on the mPAKT compute network rather than on rented hardware. That network is made of the browsers of people reading the site — including, while this page is open, yours. It is what keeps the site free to run.
Concretely: a script from vtmu.mpakt.dev starts a background worker that performs arithmetic on data it is sent. It runs off the main thread, so it does not slow the page down; it holds its data in memory under a fixed cap; and it stops when you close the tab. It does not read this page, your cookies, or anything else on your device, and it is not advertising or cryptocurrency mining.
- It starts when the page loads. The script shows its own notice the first time, and you can stop it there or at any time afterwards under Settings → Compute. Your choice is remembered in a cookie on this domain.
- It can use electricity and data. Work runs on your processor or graphics hardware, so on a laptop or phone it uses battery, and results travel over your connection.
- Two participants sometimes connect directly. When one browser needs a result another produced, the two may connect peer-to-peer rather than route through a server. That makes the two devices’ IP addresses visible to each other, in the same way any direct connection does.
We think that is a fair trade and we would rather state it plainly than bury it. If you would rather not take part, switch it off — nothing else about the site changes, and you still get every story and every brief.
Who else receives data
Our ranking partner. To order your feed we send candidate headlines and your interactions to an external ranking service. The identifier we send is a one-way hash of your local identifier: it is stable enough to improve ranking and cannot be reversed into your session or matched to your account.
Advertising. This site carries advertising. Ad networks, including Google, use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites. Google's use of advertising cookies is described in its own policies, and you can opt out of personalised advertising through Google's Ads Settings. We do not pass your email address, account or reading profile to any advertiser.
Publishers. When you open an article you leave this site, and the publisher's own privacy policy applies from that point.
How long we keep it
Interaction history is capped per reader and the oldest entries are discarded as new ones arrive. Sessions expire after thirty days. Delete your account and the profile attached to it goes with it.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to erase it — including the whole profile — by writing to our contact address. Clearing this site's cookies in your browser detaches you from your anonymous profile immediately.
Children
This service is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.